Cordial Cold War: Cultural Actors in India and the German Democratic Republic

Description

Cordial Cold War examines cultural entanglements, in various forms, between two distant yet interconnected sites of the Cold War―India and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Focusing on theatre performances, film festivals, newsreels, travel literature, radio broadcasting, cartography and art as sites of engagement, the chapters spotlight spaces of interaction that emerged in spite of, and within, the ambits of Cold War constraints. The inter-disciplinary collection sheds light on the variegated nature of translocal cultural entanglements, at work even before the GDR was officially recognized as a sovereign state by India in 1972. By foregrounding the role of actors, their practices and the sites of their entanglement, the contributions show how creative energies were mobilized to forge zones of friendship, mutual interest and envisioned solidarities.  This volume situates actors from the Global South as mutual co-shapers of the cultural Cold War, therein shifting its Euro-American and Soviet epicenters to Non-Aligned India. Going beyond official state channels of international political dialogue, it locates cordiality in the micro-histories and everyday experiences of interpersonal engagements, bringing to focus a hitherto underexplored chapter of India–Germany entanglements. Cover Sage History Half title Series page Full title Copyright CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION—CORDIAL COLD WAR CHAPTER 1 COLLABORATIVE DIALOGUES ACROSS THEATRICAL PUBLIC SPHERES CHAPTER 2 WARM WAVELENGTHS CHAPTER 3 GDR TRAVEL WRITING ON INDIA CHAPTER 4 ENTANGLEMENTS IN CARTOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE BETWEEN SOCIALISTGERMANY AND INDIA,1949–1989 CHAPTER 5 A WITNESS TO HISTORY CHAPTER 6 BRECHT BETWEEN THE GDR AND MARATHI STAGE CHAPTER 7 COLD WAR ENTANGLEMENTS CHAPTER 8 ‘EXPRESSIVITY’ IN THE ART COLLECTIVES OF INDIA CHAPTER 9 GDR–INDIA ENCOUNTERS BEFORE DIPLOMATIC RECOGNITION ABOUT THE EDITOR ANDCONTRIBUTORS INDEX